Frasers Beach

A family of Frasers, descendants of Donald, lived in the Highlands above this beach in the first half of the 20th century. The Old Fraser Road Trail connects the Meat Cove Community Centre to the Lowland Cove Trail below its junction with the Meat Cove Look-Off Trail as it ascends into the Highlands west of Meat Cove. So far as I am aware, there is today no access to the beach other than by water, though I suppose an expert rock climber using the tools of his sport could make a descent from above and return as he came.

Photo #1 has the by now familiar wedge of Rhu Pillinn at the far left and looks at the eastern end of Frasers Beach from off the middle of the beach. Taken during the Oshan Whale Cruise in 2009, this photo shows one of the many whales we saw that day off the waters of Cape St Lawrence feeding on the school of fish below with its pod, the other members of which were below the surface; the eddies in the foreground were caused by whales that had just surfaced and then submerged again. (My reason for going was not so much to see the whales as to see the incredible scenery along this beautiful shore, though I took more than a few shots of the whales like everyone else on the boat.) At this remove, I’m not certain, but I believe we were told these whales were minke whales.

Photo #2 is another shot of the east end of Frasers Beach, taken from closer to shore than photo #1 and showing only a portion of its view. It gives a better idea of the width of the beach, which is primarily formed of cobblestones reduced over the æons to small gravel.

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Photo #3 is taken from much further west, well past Bear Hill (seen in the upper far right of this photo), but looking east at the western end of Frasers Beach. There is a little bit of overlap with photo #1: the white vertical marking just above the water at the far left of photo #3 can also be seen at the far right of photo #1 (that marking is outside the scope of photo #2). In this view, the 60° tilt seen in Rhu Pillinn has become more of a 45° tilt. Most of the “slide” is hidden here by the cliff descending from Bear Hill. Also of note is the whitish rock in the centre of the photo towards the upper part of the cliff face; this is possibly gypsum, which is seen elsewhere in various exposed outcroppings along this coast, though from this distance it is hard to be sure.

Photo #4 looks at the western end of Frasers Beach from off Rhu Pillinn. Here, the cliffs on the eastern side of Bear Hill are in much sharper focus and the loose gravel seen on the flanks of the western side are also present here below the cliffs in the upper left of the photo, though their greenish cast attests to some vegetation taking hold. What an amazing structure the “slide” is! What cataclysm stripped it bare, making it so unlike the terrain on either side? Since that event, erosion has continued to chip away at its lower portion, as can be seen by the pile of rocks and rubble on the beach below right of centre; another photo (not shown) shows similar damage along its upper edge where it joins the cliff face above.

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Photo #5 is a close-up view of the western end of Frasers Beach, where the base of Bear Hill reaches the sea at the far right. The mixture of reddish-hued and blackish rocks makes for an interesting mottled effect. The pile of rocks and rubble seen in photo #4 is at the far left of photo #5; another photo taken at the same time shows it to consist of large slabs of flat rock which have apparently been dislodged as water worked its way into the interstices between the strata, expanded as ice and then melted, in a never-ending cycle that eventually loosened them enough that gravity brought them down. The vaulted structure at the left and the caves seen in the centre and at the far right attest to the power of the waters which constantly wash ashore here, gentle on a beautiful afternoon like this one, but with powerful, crashing, punishing waves when the winds and tides are up. Run-off from above can also be seen to have its effect as well; notice the gravel pile just above the beach in the centre of the photo and then follow the path up the cliff face to the top above along which water must cascade down after a heavy rain. What strength these rocks must have to bear so much abuse!

Photo #6 is taken from a bit to the northwest of the previous one and brings the western end of Frasers Beach into even sharper focus. Here, the rubble at the bottom of the sand pile is more visible, though it was also visible in photo #5. And the cracks in the rocks of the topmost stratum above the vaulted structure are also much more noticeable.